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"Near the end of the twenty-seventh century, when the interstellar age was just dawning, two ships set out from Earth to escape the fascist theocracy that had taken over North America. One was the Bremerhaven, the other the Seeker. On a distant planet, the voyagers established a colony they named Margolia. Then they and the colony disappeared from recorded history." "Thousands of years later, the legendary status of Margolia has made it the new Atlantis - and of special interest to antiquities dealer Alex Benedict when he comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker. Investigating the provenance of the cup, Alex and Chase Kolpath follow a deadly trail to the Seeker - strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the center of the mystery that is Margolia - and into the very heart of danger."--Publisher.… (more)
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813.54 |
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What's special about this particular cup is that the ship Seeker, thousands of years earlier, took a group of about a thousand people away from earth, destined for a new world, Margolia. Since the ship left, no one ever heard from these people again, and legends began to flourish about the hidden colony -- rising to the level of our own fascination with say, Atlantis. But with the cup found, Alex and Chase now have evidence that someone out there knows something about the Seeker and quite possibly Margolia, and they begin a long journey to discover all they can, with the hope of picking up more relics and making a fortune. Along the way Alex thinks they can also solve the mystery of what happened to the Seeker and its passengers. But there are others out there who don't want Alex and Chase to succeed.
While parts of the plot and some of the characters are often just so-so, there are some good scenes. McDevitt's best writing shows itself when Chase ventures off into the home world of the physically repugnant Mutes (The Ashyyur -- a telepathic race with whom humans have a tentative peace), following a lead. McDevitt poses some moral questions in this novel while telling a good story.
The combination of sci-fi and mystery appeals to me when I'm in the "I need to relax my brain" mode. I would recommend it to readers of speculative fiction, and for mystery readers who don't mind leaving Earth for the duration of the read.
Characters: Really only the main couple. The rest are very transient this time. They're still hanging strong however.
Plot: The search for the missing colony. Really, it was done quite well. Kept me riveted.
Style: Still as good if not better. The writing style melded very well with the plot
The Seeker was one of humanity's first true interstellar "seed ships," a massive star-going ship designed to ferry people to a colony. Launched from a dystopian Earth more than a century before the beginning of the novel's narrative, the Seeker carried colonists to a fledgling community free from the global government's fascist policies. However, when the Seeker was lost without a trace, a legend was born. A legend which lay untouched for more than a century.
Alex Benedict, an antiquities dealer specializing in artifacts from alien civilizations and the ancient human space program, is shown a cup that, by all appearances, came from the vanished Seeker. This touches off a race to locate the Seeker, a quest which takes us across the stars to put together a centuries-old jigsaw puzzle of clues. The prize, however, could be much more than the Seeker itself - the colony to which the Seeker was headed has also never been found.
Filled with the a hard science fiction narrative that Jack McDevitt is so famous for crafting, "Seeker" is a story that is difficult to leave. Each step along the path opens a new question, and although the book suffers from a slow introduction, once the true plot begins, it is difficult to put down for any length of time.
Despite the fact that "Seeker" is actually the third in the series, new readers can easily pick up the storyline without any knowledge of prior events - although one should be warned that the conclusions of prior books are hinted.
"Seeker" is a prime example of the science fiction that only Jack McDevitt can write. Well worth the time of any true science fiction fan, "Seeker" is an excellent example of how science fiction - and mystery - should be done.
The better part of these books, I hasten to add, is that they're part of a series, but not a discrete trilogy, so none of them suffer the middle book syndrome, and all have self contained stories that at most barely reference previous books.
Still, I think I'm over my McDevitt phase, at least for a couple of months.
And even though the villian is an asshole, it's a good book.
A decent novel by Jack McDevitt, won a Nebula and all that. But what about the story?
This is an Alex Benedict novel, the second in a series, which I started first. Yeah, that’s me. I completed the Hutch series of books and wanted to continue with McDevitt in a similar universe, but 9,000
Plots and Contrivances:
Benedict is a treasure hunter and with his aide Chase, find archeological artifacts and then put them up for auction and use that money for further exploration. They consider they are explorers and if they didn’t put the stuff out for people to see, it would rot in an alien cave or be undisturbed or unknown for thousands of years. Can’t have that!
Some admire the team. Others hate them and call them “grave robbers” which is the main impetus of the tale.
Someone knows of Benedict’s expeditions. Someone looted an area that he had already discovered. Further, someone is trying to kill him and Chase!
But I digress.
The book starts with a man who is crushed under an avalanche and regrets it, since he made an amazing discovery, a major archeological find, and now he is going to die under tons of ice and snow, hoping against hope that someone finds what he found out.
Through pure luck, someone walks into Benedict’s offices and presents a cup that has no previous history. It’s from her ex, who is a robber, whose ex’s father (who has since been mindwiped and not a criminal anymore) had stolen the cup from a rich family, who happens to be related to the guy who was buried under the snow at the start of the story.
And someone is trying to kill Benedict and Chase to prevent them from further discovery as they trace the cup through some pretty unusual and frankly crazy coincidences.
Plot Points:
The girl who brought in the cup, not really smart and not bright in the ways of romance. Chase helps but ends up getting hurt in the process. The girl is not much of a character.
The adventure to the Mutes, the only other civilization they know of, that is a race of telepaths. Chase has a fun time with them – NOT.
The whole AI (artificial intelligence) angle, enjoyable.
The ending (no spoilers!) really wraps things up nicely and I was somewhat surprised who the true antagonist was.
Bottom Line:
Moral judgment and radical terrorism in the vein of archeology and grave-robbing, as well as civilizations old and new pepper this novel. Sometimes convoluted, but a fun read overall.
Still, not as good as his Hutch novels – so far.
On to “Polaris” (the first in the Alex Benedict series).
Recommended.
Alex sends Chase, his assistant and pilot, everywhere, including to a museum on an alien world where they're telepaths and they can all read her mind, and then to old Earth. They do ultimately find Seeker and its hidden contents, but discover there was a second ship as well, and so the search continues. Meanwhile, someone isn't too happy with their efforts and tries to murder them. When the identity of the person behind the murder plot is revealed, I was shocked. Shocked! And Chase is amazing. She can do practically anything, while Alex gets all the credit.
I'm not sure if this is a five star book or not. It's not the best book I've read and it may not even be the best Alex Benedict book. But after thinking it over, I can't come up with a valid reason NOT to give it five stars. It's a great mystery. It's got action. It's got history. It's got space. It's got sci fi. What more could you want? Recommended.
Alex sends Chase, his assistant and pilot, everywhere, including to a museum on an alien world where they're telepaths and they can all read her mind, and then to old Earth. They do ultimately find Seeker and its hidden contents, but discover there was a second ship as well, and so the search continues. Meanwhile, someone isn't too happy with their efforts and tries to murder them. When the identity of the person behind the murder plot is revealed, I was shocked. Shocked! And Chase is amazing. She can do practically anything, while Alex gets all the credit.
I'm not sure if this is a five star book or not. It's not the best book I've read and it may not even be the best Alex Benedict book. But after thinking it over, I can't come up with a valid reason NOT to give it five stars. It's a great mystery. It's got action. It's got history. It's got space. It's got sci fi. What more could you want? Recommended.
Chase Kolpath and Alex Benedict follow the trail of an ancient cup to try to find out what became of a colony that set out for new territory thousands of years ago, and was never heard from again.
I found the story
There are certainly plenty of sci-fi books that are written very poorly, and this one is better than most, but it just didn’t get me charged up enough to recommend it.
~Stephanie